


Worth the Wait

by vldrarepairs (miraculousstorytelling)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Reunions, Fighting Turns Into Flirting, Flirting, M/M, Making Out, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Rescue, lance is oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 17:12:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9281708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculousstorytelling/pseuds/vldrarepairs
Summary: After finding Pidge's family and finally reuniting them, Lance finds that coping with Matt being around the ship is a little harder than he expected.





	

"Lance, are you in?"

"Yeah, just a sec..." He peered around the corner. "It looks clear. You said they're at the end of the hall?"

"According to the schematics." Pidge's voice was low and tense over the comm link. "Can you see them?"

"Not yet. Any guards showing up?"

"I think Keith's diversion worked pretty well. They're all in the east wing."

Lance took another quick peek and rushed down the hall. "Okay. I'm going in." He plugged in a small computer Pidge had given him to the handprint reader beside the room at the end of the hallway. "It's ready."

She remoted in and made quick work of hacking through the security system keeping the door locked. "Just a minute..." He glanced over his shoulder nervously as she worked. "Got it."

The door whooshed open, and Lance ran inside. The large, dimly lit room was filled with prisoners, all looking defeated and exhausted. They stared at him for a brief moment before it sunk in that he wasn't a Galra soldier.

"Everyone, follow me. I'm gonna get you out." Lance grinned. "I'm a paladin of Voltron. We're here to rescue you. Go out in the hall, and I'll lead you out of here." By far, this was his favorite part of the job. Saving people and, hopefully, reuniting them with their families. He ushered them out of the room one by one, mentally counting how many he'd need to accomodate. "Pidge, do we have any spare ships? There's a lot more here than I can fit in Blue."

Unfortunately for Lance, he didn't even hear her answer. Instead, he froze and lost focus entirely when he saw the next two prisoners ready to hurry out into the hallway.

"Wait." He grabbed the younger man's shoulder. "Are you..." His heart was racing. He couldn't be wrong about this. Not with Pidge listening in. "Are you Matt Holt?"

The man paused, his brown eyes wide. "How did you know?"

Pidge immediately fell silent, and Lance grinned, turning to look at the older man beside him. "And that's your dad?"

"Yes, but-"

"Pidge!" Lance laughed. "Pidge, we found them!"

"Are you serious?" Her voice was so small.

"Yeah!" Lance shouted, beaming at the men he knew his teammate had been looking for the entire duration of her time with them.

"Who's Pidge?" Matt asked softly.

Lance chuckled, ushering him outside, "You'll find out soon." He couldn't stop smiling as he waved the rest of the prisoners out into the hall. "Where's that ship, Pidge?"

"There..." She cleared her throat, finally speaking again. "There's one down the hall. If you hurry up, we can get the rest of them out before it gets too bad. Lance, you're sure-"

"I'm sure. They're safe." He ushered the group down the hall towards the hangar with the spare ships. "I'll bring them back safe."

"Thanks..." she whispered, trying to refocus on the task at hand. If they could take out this stronghold, the Galra empire would be missing one of its biggest resources to date. It would be a massive win for Voltron. Of course, a victory felt like nothing compared to the thrill of finally knowing her father and brother were safe.

Lance directed most of the prisoners into the small ships and launched them off towards the castle. The few who didn't fit, including Matt and Sam Holt, joined Lance in his lion. He checked in with Shiro, who was currently fighting alongside Keith to keep the Galra's attention while he and Hunk split to release the prisoners. Everyone else had things well under control, so he and Hunk could head back to the castle with their new guests in tow.

The ships Hunk and Lance had sent off arrived just seconds after their lions landed in their bays. Lance helped everyone out and led them to the main command room. "Don't worry, we have plenty of healing pods, so all of you will be taken care of. The princess has this place stocked with plenty of food, too, so-"

He stopped when a small green and white blur rushed past him and collided heavily with Matt. They both went down, nearly taking Sam with them, and Lance tried hard not to laugh at the pile of tangled limbs on the ground.

"Who..." Matt stared. "What?"

Pidge glanced up at her father and brother, tears building in the corners of her eyes. "You're okay. I can't believe it."

Sam knelt beside them with a concerned frown. "Katie?"

She nodded.

"Katie, what are you doing out here?" Matt asked, his voice hushed as he held her tight.

Lance led the others out to give them a moment alone, though he glanced over his shoulder a few times to check on them. Pidge was crying and hugging both of them, murmuring words too soft for him to hear. Matt and Sam appeared to be crying right along with her, and Lance smiled. As much as Lance might miss home and ache for the chance to see his family, he was undeniably thrilled to see that Pidge had finally found hers.

 

In the coming weeks, Lance would learn that, while Pidge might have taken on Matt's looks, she was vastly different from her brother. She'd told some stories of his tendency towards pranks, but Lance had naturally assumed that Matt had grown out of them, particularly given that he'd been selected as a scientist on board a major mission into space. So, when Lance walked out of the shower to see his hair, his _beautiful, meticulously-cared-for hair_ , had been dyed blue, he could only let out a blood-curdling shriek.

Pidge found it annoyingly hilarious, and Matt laughed so hard he started crying. Lance didn't speak to them for the rest of the day.

 

The next day, Lance was complaining to Sam about his children, the two chuckling over some of Sam's war stories, when Pidge walked in and rolled her eyes. "Are you still whining over your hair, Lance?"

Matt followed her in and winked. "Yeah, I think it looks good on you."

Lance grumbled, but he had to admit that the color did suit him. Not that he wanted to keep it, but at this point, if he messed with the color again, he'd only hurt his hair more. He might as well let it grow out.

Keith made fun of him, despite Shiro chiding him for doing so. Of course, Matt retaliated by bleaching Keith's hair a shocking white and, interestingly enough, Keith didn't find that quite as funny. Even Shiro's comment on their new matching colors couldn't console him.

Lance laughed for a solid ten minutes, and Matt grinned when he saw it.

 

Perhaps that should have been the moment Lance noticed. Because while all of the other ex-prisoners, Sam Holt included, thanked him over and over for the first few days, Matt seemed to focus his energy on seamlessly blending into the small family the paladins had created on board the ship, including harmless pranks tailored to each of them. Sam and Coran seemed to bond exceptionally well over understanding and improving the castle's defenses. Meanwhile, Matt seemed to bond with everyone, though he reserved most of his time for Pidge.

That was when he wasn't poking fun at Lance.

Granted, Lance was accustomed to the irritating older brother lingering around and making jokes at his expense. Heck, he'd _been_ that older brother on a few occasions. But, even he hadn't devoted quite so much energy to annoying his siblings.

Or watching his siblings when they trained and teasing them about not doing their best.

Or casually dropping pickup lines that would make most men who weren't Lance blush straight to their toes.

Or starting a food fight when Lance was having a bad day.

 

Really, Lance should have realized weeks ago that the way Matt was watching him wasn't quite the same as the way he watched the other paladins. So, when Matt teased him for the hundredth time about how he was slacking off at training, Lance really should have guessed that there might have been an ulterior motive.

"If you think you're so good at this, why don't you prove it?"

"Maybe I will!" Matt smirked, leaning forward. "Think you can handle it?"

"Handle it?!" Lance sputtered. "You... _you_ can't handle it!"

Matt stood and stretched, "We'll see."

Lance knew he'd been taking some lessons from Shiro and Keith. It was probably his way of dealing with the lingering trauma of being a Galra prisoner for so long. While he'd luckily spent most of his time in the work camps, rather than the arena, he still had his own scars to bear.

Still, that didn't make Lance feel much better when Matt landed a hit and took him down in the span of a second. Lance managed to wriggle free and shoot him a glare, but he was still secretly grateful no one else had been around to see it.

"That was close," Matt teased.

"I'm just getting started," Lance shot back, jumping to his feet and squaring off.

He didn't answer. He just waited and watched for Lance's next move.

When it finally came, Matt sprang into action and quickly knocked him back once more. This time, Lance was prepared, and when Matt moved to pin him, Lance flipped their positions and pinned him instead. Matt hadn't been prepared, and he went down easily.

Lance smirked, his arm resting on Matt's chest and his legs twined with Matt's to keep him still. One hand was pinning Matt's right arm to the side, leaving only his left arm free.

"Not bad," Matt murmured between breaths. "Not good, but not bad."

"Seriously?" Lance scowled. "I have you pinned, man!"

"Mmm... _Mostly_ pinned." Matt took the opportunity to reach up with his free hand and yank Lance off-balance. They rolled for a moment, each struggling to overpower the other, limbs bumping over limbs and torsos as they worked to pin the other down. Lance fought with everything he had, grunting as yet another thump filled the room when he hit the ground hard. Matt was winning, which Lance found even more irritating than his persistent, mocking presence for the past two months. So, Lance tried his final, desperate move, reaching behind Matt's head to pin him into a headlock.

Matt could read him from a mile away. One perk to paying too much attention to Lance over the past month and a half or so was that he was intimately familiar with how Lance's body moved. He ducked and twisted and grabbed Lance's arm while he forced Lance's chest to the ground. He expertly gripped and trapped Lance's arm behind his back, pinning him face-first on the floor of the training room.

Lance groaned in frustration, trying to break free, but Matt's grip was immoveable. He struggled and finally sagged in defeat. Sweat beaded across his forehead as he gasped to catch his breath. "Okay, _okay_. You win."

Matt chuckled, "Told you I was better."

"Are you gonna let go?"

"What do I get if I do?" His breath rushed over Lance's ear, voice low and soft.

And that, _that_ was when it finally clicked. Because, given how much of a flirt he was, Lance really should have recognized by now that Matt wasn't teasing him at all. "Wait..." Lance wriggled a bit. "You were flirting this whole time?"

Matt hesitated. "Wait... You couldn't tell?"

"I thought... I didn't...know?" Lance offered, blushing just a little at the realization of his massive oversight.

Matt laughed, releasing Lance's arms and settling back on his heels. "Seriously?! I thought Pidge was joking when she said you were oblivious. I wasn't being subtle."

 Lance turned and shoved Matt back, straddling his waist. "Hey, come on! I'm not that oblivious."

Matt grinned up at him. "I said I wanted to unzip your _genes_."

"I thought it was just a bad science joke." Lance gestured wildly. "I... People don't-"

Matt cut him off by grabbing Lance's wrists and tugging him forward. "People don't flirt with you?"

Lance blushed again, "No!" He hated that his voice cracked as he protested, particularly because it just made that stupid, crooked smile on Matt's face wider. "They do. All the time." He yanked back on his wrists only to find that Matt's grip was as strong as ever.

"Really? I've been here for two months, and-"

"They just flirt when you're not around."

"I'm around a lot."

"Well, yeah, but not all the time."

Matt twisted, flipping Lance onto the ground and bodily pinning him to the ground with his hands over his head. "Lance, since you're so terrible at picking up on subtleties, I'll be blunt. Can I kiss you?"

Lance floundered for a moment, too stunned to try and free himself. "I... Yeah?"

Matt didn't waste a second. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Lance's. Lance tensed, despite expecting it, and his eyes slid closed slowly. Matt's grip on his wrists tightened somewhat as he angled and moved forward for another soft kiss. Heat radiated from every inch of Matt's body, now pressed so tightly against Lance's, and he could feel another blush rising across the tips of his ears and up the back of his neck. His fingers itched to brush over Matt's arms or neck, but instead he was held immobile, drowning in sensation.

Matt moved to hold Lance's wrists in one hand, freeing his other to drift down and cup the side of Lance's face. He stroked his thumb over one cheekbone, enjoying the feel of skin he'd only imagined would be this soft. He could feel every twitch and move of Lance's limbs as he kissed him, and it was endlessly satisfying to experience the gentle tugs against his firm grip on Lance's wrists. Matt moved away to breathe, briefly looking down at Lance and smiling, simply enjoying the moment. He'd spent months trying to pin Lance down, and he wasn't quite ready to let him go yet.

Lance stared up at him, wide-eyed and breathing hard. "Whoa."

Matt kissed him again, his free hand running through Lance's hair, still damp with sweat. He wanted to memorize exactly how Lance looked at him, all soft and full of wonder. He trailed kisses across the length of Lance's cheek, one hand resting on the side of Lance's jaw. He paused when Lance gasped, and he grinned, wishing he could hear that sound forever. "Worth the wait..." he murmured softly into Lance's ear.

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on tumblr under vldrarepairs.  
> http://vldrarepairs.tumblr.com/post/153024648520/latte-matt-and-lance


End file.
